Bakken

Sunday

Mar 17, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 17, 2013 at 4:23 PM

Here is a video of the place where they load the trains with oil, trains which you can see passing through Fargo and on down Highway 10. I passed through the Bakken on the way home this week. It is something. Dickinson is so lit up. It is like beet harvest times 100. Gas flares and oil rig high voltage lights light up the night sky.

My rough calculations are that each train of 100 cars carries about $5 million worth of oil. It costs about $60,000 to haul it to Cushing Oklahoma for delivery.

It is encouraging that Burlington Northern is considering using natural gas for their locomotives. Rather than abandoning fossil fuels cold turkey, which I suspect will never be politically viable, we should constantly move to the better forms of energy from the massive stores underneath us. Natural gas is so cheap right now, perhaps companies will be inspired to move to it for cost savings.

Here is a video of the place where they load the trains with oil, trains which you can see passing through Fargo and on down Highway 10. I passed through the Bakken on the way home this week. It is something. Dickinson is so lit up. It is like beet harvest times 100. Gas flares and oil rig high voltage lights light up the night sky.

My rough calculations are that each train of 100 cars carries about $5 million worth of oil. It costs about $60,000 to haul it to Cushing Oklahoma for delivery.

It is encouraging that Burlington Northern is considering using natural gas for their locomotives. Rather than abandoning fossil fuels cold turkey, which I suspect will never be politically viable, we should constantly move to the better forms of energy from the massive stores underneath us. Natural gas is so cheap right now, perhaps companies will be inspired to move to it for cost savings.